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On Clemency Fast Track, via the Oval Office

WASHINGTON — In December 2007, the names of about 700 federal prisoners seeking commutations reached President Bush’s desk. He rejected all but one. Among the disappointed petitioners was Reed R. Prior, an Iowa man serving a life sentence for a drug conviction whose application had been pending for nearly five years.

Last month, Mr. Prior filed a new application with the Justice Department. Not much had changed. But this time, with help from the Iowa governor, Mr. Prior’s lawyer secured a face-to-face meeting with the White House counsel, Fred F. Fielding. A week later, Mr. Bush commuted Mr. Prior’s sentence.

Of the 20 felony offenders to whom Mr. Bush granted clemency on Dec. 23, most of the attention has focused on Isaac R. Toussie, the New York real estate swindler who had hired a lawyer with political connections and bypassed the normal review process. A day later, the White House took the unusual step of saying it was stopping his pardon.

But Mr. Toussie, who was represented by a former associate counsel to Mr. Bush, was just one of at least four people who gained special access. Two others were also represented by former associate counsels to Mr. Bush. And a White House meeting was devoted to Mr. Prior’s case in part because his lawyer knew the wife of Gov. Chet Culver of Iowa.

People with the wherewithal to do so have always tried to use special access to power to win clemency. And none of Mr. Bush’s decisions have been as controversial as President Bill Clinton’s last-minute pardon of the fugitive-financier Marc Rich.

But over the last few presidencies, the incentive to try to go around the normal process has increased, said P. S. Ruckman Jr., a political scientist who specializes in clemency.

A huge backlog at the Justice Department’s pardon review office combined with the relatively small number of clemency grants by recent presidents, Professor Ruckman said, “encourages people to try to end-run the process — to try to cheat, for lack of a better word, to gain access to the White House directly.”

Although the Bush administration has repeatedly said clemency-seekers should go through the Justice Department review, a White House spokesman, Tony Fratto, said anyone was free to send a petition directly to the White House, which “at a minimum requires the cost of a stamp.” Mr. Fratto added that “it is immaterial to us who delivers a petition for a pardon” because the president makes such decisions “on the merits.”

But Professor Ruckman said that people without connections could not walk into the White House, and that under ordinary circumstances, any letter would be forwarded to the Justice Department, where about half a dozen lawyers had 2,172 pending cases as of Dec. 4.

Going through the Justice Department did not work for Mr. Prior, despite widespread support. His judge said in an interview that he “fully supported” a commutation for the 1996 conviction for methamphetamine possession with intent to distribute. He said the sentence, required by mandatory guidelines, was unjust in that case. The prosecutor and prominent Iowa politicians supported Mr. Prior, too.

That was not enough the first time. So last month, when his volunteer lawyer, Robert M. Holliday of Des Moines, filed a new application, he decided to try to take Mr. Prior’s case directly to the White House.

Mr. Holliday happened to know Mari Culver, the wife of Iowa’s Democratic governor. So he asked if her husband would call Mr. Fielding and request a meeting. Mr. Culver, who supported Mr. Prior’s case, did so.

Mr. Holliday and other supporters of Mr. Prior met with Mr. Fielding on Dec. 17. They persuaded him to recommend granting the commutation.

Mr. Fratto declined to make Mr. Fielding available. But he said Mr. Fielding had met with other clemency advocates, and did not always agree with them.

There were signs that the three offenders represented by former White House lawyers might have received special treatment.

The applications for all three were filed less than a year before the pardons were granted. Margaret Colgate Love, who was the United States pardon attorney from 1990 to 1997, said it usually took significantly longer than that to undergo a complete review, which includes an F.B.I. background check.

Alan S. Maiss, once president of Bally Gaming Inc., was convicted in 1995 in a case related to a video-poker scandal in Louisiana. In seeking a pardon, Mr. Maiss was represented by H. Christopher Bartolomucci, an associate White House counsel from 2001 to 2003.

Mr. Maiss applied on Dec. 26, 2007, far later than most of the other pardon recipients. A Justice Department spokeswoman, Laura Sweeney, said Mr. Maiss did not get through quickly because of special treatment. Ms. Sweeney noted that two others who were granted pardons in December had applied recently — in August 2007 and February 2008.

But Douglas A. Berman, a criminal law professor at Ohio State University, and a clemency consultant, said “there’s no doubt” that Mr. Maiss had received fast-track treatment.

Mr. Bartolomucci, who has several other clemency clients, said he visited the White House in August 2008, “hand-delivered the materials that had already gone to the Justice Department,” and “took a few minutes” to talk with the associate counsel who handles pardons, Kenneth Lee, about Mr. Maiss’s case.

“His application was granted because of its considerable merits,” Mr. Bartolomucci said.

The applications for the other two represented by former White House lawyers were filed in June and July of 2008, respectively. For different reasons, each was ineligible for a positive Justice Department recommendation.

One case was that of the late Charles T. Winters, to whom Mr. Bush granted a posthumous pardon for a conviction stemming from illegally sending arms to Israel in 1948. The department normally does not process applications for deceased people.

Mr. Winters was represented by Reginald Brown, an associate White House counsel from 2003 to 2005. Mr. Brown said the volunteer team also included Frank Jimenez, the Navy general counsel and a friend of Mr. Winters’s son, and Noam Neusner, a former White House aide to Mr. Bush.

Mr. Brown said he sent e-mail messages and documents to Mr. Fielding and Mr. Lee, and answered their questions. He also argued that his client’s case was in a different category because it was symbolic and that there was no need for a background check.

“We certainly didn’t seek any special treatment for Charlie Winters,” said Mr. Brown, who declined to discuss any other clemency clients he or his firm might have.

The other case that was ineligible for a pardon under normal circumstances was that of Mr. Toussie. The Justice Department requires five years to have passed since the end of a sentence before it will consider a pardon application, and that time period was not yet up.

Mr. Toussie hired Bradford Berenson, an associate White House counsel from 2001 to 2003. Mr. Berenson declined to comment, but Mr. Fratto said that Mr. Berenson had visited the White House to discuss the case.

The announcement of a pardon for Mr. Toussie prompted furor, in part because it emerged that his father had recently donated $28,500 to the Republican National Committee. The White House said it was halting the pardon and sending the case to the Justice Department for review.

But several legal specialists said that it was not clear the pardon was nullified, and that the case might end up in court.

Justice Department officials say clemency should be rare. They say the review process is fair, but Karen Orehowsky, a volunteer clemency consultant who advised Mr. Prior’s commutation team, said that ordinary people going through the department process have virtually no chance.

“It takes a ‘Hail Mary’ from people who have a lot of connections and who are willing to put their neck out for people they care about, and it’s unfair to people who don’t have those connections,” Ms. Orehowsky said.

Correction: January 3, 2009

An article on Thursday about applicants for presidential pardons misstated the years that Reginald Brown served an associate White House counsel. Mr. Brown, who represented one of the people President Bush pardoned this year, held the job from 2003 to 2005, not from 2001 to 2003.

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated the period of time that Reginald Brown served an associate White House counsel. He was in the position from 2003 to 2005, not from 2001 to 2003.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: On Fast Track For Clemency, Via Oval Office. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe